


Menagerie

by theotheralissa



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 13:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4264692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotheralissa/pseuds/theotheralissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ohno draws and paints animals so lifelike they might just walk right off the page. Nino ends up a patron at his exhibition by chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Menagerie

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ninoexchange 2015! Originally posted [here](http://ninoexchange.livejournal.com/47157.html).

Eight year old Ohno Satoshi drew a picture of a ladybug on a leaf. 

It had glossy red wings with black spots. Antennae and six feet. 

When Ohno drew this ladybug it wasn’t just any ladybug. This ladybug was an explorer and he liked to fly from leaf to leaf, from garden to garden. He liked to search for new trees and new flowers he’d never seen before. 

He might have had a name. Ohno didn’t know if ladybugs had names. He took care to draw every line and every curve. It was an image in his head. Not a real ladybug he saw but one he imagined on a leaf he imagined too. 

When he finished the picture he sat back, satisfied, but something happened just then. His hand shook and the page shook and the whole room shook and the ladybug flew off the page and out the window. 

Ohno remembers running down the stairs after it. He remembers stretching out his hands and calling for it. He ran all the way down the block that day and eventually it turned into just a little speck and then it disappeared. 

When he went sullenly back to his room he remembers looking at the sketchbook again. The leaf was still there. Still vibrantly green. But in the place where the ladybug once was there was nothing but a black smudge. 

Thirty-four year old Ohno has never told this story to anyone in his life. He still has the paper with the green leaf drawn on it, faded over time, but it’s always there tucked away in the back of whatever sketchbook he’s using at the moment. 

There is another thing, though, that thirty-four year old Ohno Satoshi is occupied with. 

Tomorrow his first exhibition is opening in the Park Hotel gallery in Tokyo. His hands tremble a little as he moves his pencil down the page. He’s drawing a dragonfly now, but the wings look a little ragged on account of not being able to keep his hand still. Somehow now the night before his first exhibition he remembers that time when he was eight years old and the ladybug that got away. 

He wills this dragonfly to fly off the page when he’s finished with it, but it doesn’t budge. 

The exhibition is almost completely made up of animals. Sakurai, the gallery owner, called it a “menagerie” and Ohno liked the way the word rolled off of his tongue. 

That night, lying in his hotel bed, he imagines all of his drawings and paintings and sculptures lined up at the walls. The lights are all out and the doors won’t be open for guests until tomorrow. There is a big sculpture of a giraffe that acts as a centerpiece. It’s the first thing guests will see when they walk in, even when they’re at the counter getting tickets they’ll be able to see the giraffe’s head peeking up and over the partitions. 

Maybe now with all of the lights off it’s moved off of its stand and is walking through the aisles. Maybe the stag beetles crawled off of their canvas in search of the trees and maybe the birds have already made nests up above the doors. 

Ohno smiles against his pillow and drifts off to sleep. 

\---

Ohno’s mother sends out invitations to everyone he’s ever known in his life to come and see the exhibition. So two of the people who end up there are his high school friends Aiba Masaki and Matsumoto Jun. Aiba looks the same as he did when they were students, still tall and lanky, but Jun has grown up too almost as tall. 

“Ohno-san!” Aiba calls out, waving his ticket out in front of him and Ohno makes his way over to where Jun clasps a hand on his shoulder then Aiba finally pulls him in to a hug. 

“Thanks for coming,” Ohno beams at them. The gallery isn’t full. There are only three people looking around at the pieces. 

Sakurai had said that it might take some time. Ohno is a still unknown artist and it’s his first break. Sakurai may have even been taking a risk on opening up his exhibition, but he said he liked the style and wanted to give Ohno a chance. In thanks for letting him host the exhibition there, Ohno had crafted a small resin figure of a deer. He notices every time he goes to Sakurai’s office that it’s still displayed there on the table. 

“We always knew you’d turn into an artist!” Aiba says, excitedly. “Mind if I take a look around?”  
“Yeah,” Ohno laughs. Before he can say anything else Aiba is already moving deeper into the gallery and right up to the giraffe in the center where the other three people have also gathered. 

It’s like that for most of the morning. 

It’s like that for most of the first few days. Sakurai assures him it’s normal so Ohno doesn’t worry. But he does see something in the hotel outside of the gallery that catches his eye. 

Every day and every evening he sees the same guy coming and going. He’s been at the hotel since Ohno arrived and he doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon either. He’s not very tall, probably not much taller than Ohno, and he doesn’t seem to be a tourist - no bags, no camera. He doesn’t seem to be a businessman either, coming and going in jeans and white T-shirts and dark baseball caps. 

Ohno has drawn more than a few people over the years. He likes to draw animals, people, things that have the potential for movement. He draws people he’s met and people he’s only seen. He draws people who don’t exist other than in his imagination. 

When he sees the guy in the hotel, he wants to draw him. He makes a little sketch in the corner of his sketchbook. Just a little one that might look like a scribble from far away, but with his eyes close to the paper, he pencils in the brim of the hat and smiles at his work. 

He calls him hotel guy in his head and makes a few more sketches over the next few days. 

After a week, Ohno is surprised to still see him there, still going and coming every day at odd times. Sometimes early in the morning clutching to a can of coffee for his life. Sometimes sauntering out of the hotel lobby late in the afternoon. Sometimes he leaves and doesn’t come back until late and sometimes he just seems to appear out of nowhere. 

It’s after a week passes that Ohno finally works up the nerve to approach him. 

The next day when hotel guy comes through the lobby Ohno catches up with him just as he’s leaving. 

“Um,” he says. “Excuse me.” 

From behind he looks the same as always. White T-shirt, jeans. He’s wearing a dark brown hat today that says “HAT” on it in thick white letters. 

When he turns around Ohno sees that he’s wearing a mask and he tugs it down, perhaps so Ohno can see his confused look in full force. 

“Eh?” 

Ohno shrugs. “Do you want to come to the exhibition?” 

“Ah I have a thing,” the guy says. But Ohno sees him looking beyond him and into the hall. 

Wordlessly he hands hotel guy a flier. He takes it and looks at the title of the exhibition matching it with the sign on the arch above the doors. Then he meets Ohno’s eyes again. 

“Yeah alright,” the guy says. “After the thing.” 

“After the thing,” Ohno nods. 

\---

Nino takes the flier from the artist guy. He intends to go back and take a look around the gallery but the thing he has to do ends up taking much longer than he expects. 

It’s not just a thing. It’s two things. One business, one personal. 

It’s after midnight when he finally stumbles onto the train. 

Just his luck that sitting right across from him is the very guy whose name is on a folded up paper in the pocket of his jeans. 

Nino pulls the flier out of his pocket and unfolds it in his lap. The guy doesn’t notice him there, probably because the brim of his hat is covering his face. He isn’t so sure if he wants the guy to notice him or not either, but somehow he doesn’t want the guy to think he blew him off. 

He doesn’t even know this guy at all. He’s just the artist guy who tried to get him to come to his exhibition. In a week or so Nino will leave the hotel and he’ll never see this guy again anyway. So he doesn’t quite know why he moves to the other side of the train and sits down right next to him. 

“Hey,” Nino says. 

The artist guy doesn’t look up at first or maybe Nino’s voice was too quiet. He reaches over and nudges the guy’s shoe. 

“Ah!” he turns. “Hotel guy.” 

Nino laughs. “Is that what you call me?” 

“Well I don’t know your name...” 

“I called you artist guy,” Nino grins. 

“But you know my name,” the guy says, pointing at the creased flier Nino is holding in his hands. “Ohno Satoshi, it says it right there.” 

Nino shrugs. It doesn’t really feel like it counts if the guy doesn’t tell him himself. 

“You can call me Nino,” Nino says. 

The guy smiles. “You can call me Ohno.” 

They ride the train in silence, but they’re both going to the same place so they get out at the station silently and walk side by side to the hotel. 

When they step inside they should be parting ways. But they don’t. First they stand there for a moment until Nino feels a little weird like his throat is too tight and then it comes. 

“Do you want to come up to my room?” Ohno asks. 

That’s what this is about. 

“No thanks,” Nino says. “I--” 

“I mean... not like that!” Ohno says, looking a little mortified. The way his cheeks tinge pink makes Nino want to laugh. He chuckles a little, feeling the way his smile breaks through the tension. 

“Still...” Nino starts. 

“I mean,” Ohno says. “I have this big room they gave to me and there is a big sofa and I wanted to show you something.” 

Nino raises an eyebrow. Any other time of his life he’d be glad to have this guy asking him up to his room. He’d go in a heartbeat and maybe he’d slip out in the morning or Ohno would slip out on him. They’d have a night together and then part their separate ways. 

“Not _that_ kind of thing,” Ohno says, a little exacerbated. 

“We’ll see,” Nino can’t help but grin a little. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He doesn’t even know if Ohno is the type of guy who would be into someone like him. It’s just fun to watch his face get redder. 

“Well?” Ohno says. 

“Yeah alright,” Nino says. 

First they stop at his room to get a few things. Then they go up to Ohno’s room where over the next few days he gradually moves all the way in. 

\---

Ohno asks Nino up to his room on a Tuesday and on that Friday he’s still there. Neither of them have said much about it, but Ohno figures there isn’t really much to say. They make coffee in the mornings with the coffee maker in the room. Ohno gets breakfast from downstairs. Then Nino leaves and comes back at different times. Sometimes early, sometimes late. 

Mainly Ohno stays around the hotel. The guests increase in number by the day and Nino goes to look at the exhibition twice. He doesn’t gravitate towards the giraffe like most others do. But instead he likes a sketch of a small crab. 

The first night Ohno shows Nino the sketches he made of him. Now that Nino is here every day those sketches have increased in number too. Unlike his other drawings he doesn’t will them to come to life off of the page. These don’t need to. The real one is here right in front of him. 

It’s after a week passes that one of them finally brings up the topic of the room. And it’s Nino who does it. 

“Where are you going after this is finished?” Nino asks. 

“Back home I guess,” Ohno says. 

“Where is that?” 

“A little out of the city,” Ohno says. “I guess that’s why they put me up here...” 

“The day I met you was weirdest day,” Nino says, almost absently. Almost not to Ohno at all. 

Ohno is drawing something on the hotel notepad. It starts out as a swirly line but ends up a seahorse. 

“Eh?” Ohno says, looking up from the drawing. “Why?” 

“I came here for a job interview,” Nino says. 

It’s night time. One of the nights that Nino came back early enough for Ohno to see him before going to bed. 

“Yeah?” Ohno asks. “How did it go?” 

“It was kind of...” Nino starts. Then he stops for a while. 

Ohno goes back to drawing. Not because he doesn’t care to listen, but because he thinks maybe if he’s not looking right at him, Nino won’t mind saying what he wants to say. 

“It was more of an audition than a job interview I guess,” Nino says. 

“Yeah?” Ohno asks. He draws coral winding around the seahorse. 

“Kind of... I don’t know,” Nino says. “For a movie?”

“You’re an actor?” Ohno asks. 

“Not yet...” Nino says. “I guess it would be my first time in a movie.” 

“So you got it then?” Ohno asks. He can’t help but look up this time. Nino looks down and away from his eyes so Ohno goes back to his drawing, sketching in the movement of the water. 

“Yeah,” Nino says. 

“Congratulations,” Ohno says, softly. His voice soft and thin as the sketchy lines on the paper. 

“Thanks,” Nino says. 

Silence except for the sound of Ohno’s pencil. 

“Then in the same day," Nino says. “My boyfriend dumped me.” 

_Boyfriend_ Ohno notes, but doesn’t look up from the notepad. 

“I drew a ladybug once,” Ohno says. 

“Yeah?” Nino asks. 

“I was eight,” Ohno says. “I drew a ladybug and it flew off of the paper and into the street and I never saw it again.” 

“What?” Nino laughs. 

“I’m serious!” Ohno says, looking up now and glad to see Nino’s smiling face when he does. “I mean... it’s weird right? But it happened. I still have the paper.” 

“Can I see it?” Nino says, laughter still on the edges of his voice but Ohno doesn’t mind. It’s the first time he’s ever told anyone and it’s about the reaction he expected. 

He always has the paper nearby and he goes to take the sketchpad from the side of his bed and finds the paper folded in fourths and tucked into the back snugly near the binding. 

“Here,” he says, holding out the paper. Nino takes it and unfolds it slowly. 

The leaf is there. Not as green as it used to be. The smudge though is still dark and ashy. “It was there,” Ohno points. 

“Where did it go?” Nino asks. 

Ohno shrugs. “It flew down the block,” he says. “I chased it until I couldn’t see it anymore and then I gave up.” 

“Did any of those animals move?” Nino asks, nodding vaguely in the direction of the gallery. 

“No,” Ohno says. “But I really wanted them to.” 

He’s not sure if Nino believes him or not. He’s not even sure if he believes himself or not. The memory is clear and clearly there. It’s never changed over time. It must have happened, he thinks, but at the same time how can he believe in such an impossible thing? 

Nino smiles. Big and wide. 

“Can I stay here for longer?” he asks. 

“As long as you want,” Ohno says. The exhibition ends in two weeks. But Ohno can’t imagine anything beyond that. 

\---

Nino goes to look at the exhibition again. This time he looks carefully at all of the animals and creatures one by one. If he wants them to, will they move? 

He looks at each one, taking time to let his eyes follow all of the details. It’s late and the gallery is about the close. Day by day the guests have been increasing but now on a late Tuesday afternoon it’s only Nino and two others looking around. 

Nino looks at a drawing of a turtle then at a small sculpture of a rhinoceros. In scale it’s almost funny next to that huge giraffe. Nino can’t help but smile. 

The exhibition is going to close eventually and he’ll have to leave here won’t he? Ohno will have to leave and Nino will have to leave, but there isn’t anywhere for him to go. He can probably go back to the apartment he shared with Naoki. It’s not like it was a bad breakup and it’s not like it isn’t his home. It is. It has been for the past two years. 

It was a weird feeling, everything all wrapped up at once. He called Naoki to tell him about the movie, but just before he could speak Naoki told him it was over. 

The movie was a long shot. Naoki, though, he knew for a long time it was coming. Strangely, Nino wasn’t completely happy about the movie either. It’s a good chance but he isn’t an actor. He’s never been one and never even tried. He’s a stocker filling shelves in the back of a music store. Well, he was. Then he was working on the register, then he was the assistant then the store became his own. His and Naoki’s. And that’s how it would always be, he figured. But he knew it couldn’t stay like that. Naoki never liked living in Tokyo and Nino didn’t know if being tied to a shop was what he wanted either. 

“When I met you I told you I could see the future didn’t I?” Naoki had said to him. 

Nino laughed. “I thought you were just saying that to get into my pants,” he said. “And I didn’t mind.” 

He couldn’t see him but he could feel Naoki smiling into the phone. “I’m going to move back to Nagasaki,” he said. “Whenever you’re ready for me to.” 

“Excuse me,” a voice says from Nino’s right. He blinks out of the memory and he’s standing in front of that rhinoceros figure again. “We’re closing in five minutes.” 

“Thank you,” Nino says, bowing his head a little.

\---

Ohno is lying on the sofa when Nino comes back up to the room. He meant to take a short nap but when he hears the door open he peeks at the clock and realizes he’s been asleep for hours. He groans a little and rolls over. 

“Morning,” Nino says with a little grin. 

Ohno squints although there is almost no light in the room. It just makes Nino laugh. 

“I went to see it again,” Nino says. 

“How did it look?” Ohno asks. 

“Same as ever,” Nino says. “I liked it.” 

“Good,” Ohno smiles. “I drew something.” He points at the sketchbook lying there on the bed. 

Nino goes over and flips it open. It’s a drawing of himself on a train. From that time that they met there. Although there are more passengers in the drawing then there were when they met. It looks like a crowded, bustling scene. Maybe a train during rush hour, but focused on one guy in a baseball cap slouched on the seat. 

“Some of it I just imagined,” Ohno says. 

Nino keeps looking at it and Ohno wonders if he can hear the sounds of the people on the train and the sound of the train on the tracks. 

“When you drew the ladybug,” Nino asked. “What else happened that day?” 

“Eh?” Ohno says. “It was a long time ago...” 

“Can you remember anything?” 

“Like what?” Ohno says. He rolls back again so that he’s looking up at the ceiling. He thinks about it for a while. He supposes he had been drawing in his room after school like he did most days when he was a kid. It must have been afternoon still because it wasn’t dark outside when he chased the ladybug down the block. Then he remembers something. “Ah!” 

“Yeah?” Nino says, unable to hide his smile. He looks down but Ohno can probably still see it. 

“Yuuki-chan,” Ohno says a little dreamily. 

“Yuuki-chan?” Nino outright laughs this time. “Who is Yuuki-chan?” 

“She was my classmate,” Ohno says. “And that morning she kicked me on the playground and then she ran away. Then she punched me and then she kissed my cheek and pushed me into the dirt then ran away again!” 

“Scandalous,” Nino laughs. 

Ohno smiles into the pillow. “Wonder whatever happened to her,” he says. 

“She liked you,” Nino teases. 

“Not enough to keep me around,” Ohno sighs. The memory makes him feel soft and warm. He remembers the day more clearly now when he thinks about it. 

Nino goes and sits next to him on the couch. 

“I like the rhinoceros,” Nino says. 

“What about the crab?” Ohno asks. 

“Mm,” Nino says. “That one too.” 

Nino sits close and they’re side by side in the center of the sofa with a large expanse of empty cushion space on either side of them. They’ve been living in this hotel room for almost two weeks now but this is the first time they’ve been so close. Nino seems to relax next to him and when Ohno looks over it’s the most relaxed he’s looked in days. 

“What if I kiss you,” Nino says. 

“What?” Ohno turns toward Nino who is looking right in front of him and not meeting Ohno’s eyes. 

“Maybe Yuuki-chan made it happen you know?” Nino turns to him now. “Like a magic kiss." He’s smiling a little so it lightens the mood, but Ohno still feels a heavy feeling and pulls on Nino’s arm a little. 

He does it wordlessly. Leans in and pulls Nino closer by his sleeve. His heart is beating hard in his throat and he’s thinking about Yuuki-chan and then about his ex-girlfriend Maiko and how he hasn’t really kissed anyone since they broke up last year. Whatever happened to Yuuki-chan and whatever happened to Maiko? Maiko sent him an email last year on his birthday and then another one on New Year’s. He should probably send her one when her birthday comes around, he thinks, but then his thoughts all circle too fast in his mind to grasp just one. Nino’s lips are on his. Nino’s hand is on his knee. Nino is kissing him. 

Not sure if he’s the one who moves first or if Nino does, but they’re facing each other then and Nino is asking _is it okay?_ against his lips and Ohno says _yeah... yes_ just before getting so lost in it he can’t think about any other thing in the world except for him and Nino and this far-too-big sofa. 

\---

When Nino wakes up in the morning there is a trail of papers leading back to Ohno’s bed. He doesn’t get up from the sofa, but he can see that it’s another menagerie to go with the animals downstairs in the gallery. 

There is something that looks like a walrus then a dove. A couple of penguins and a moth. 

The sound of Ohno’s breathing reaches him there, light and soft like maybe it wouldn’t take much to wake him up. But Nino knows though that Ohno sleeps deeply. 

He picks up his phone from the coffee table, head still spinning from the night before and he reaches to touch his lips as he listens to Ohno’s breath. 

There are two missed calls from Naoki. And an email. _Call me when you can?_

Nino gets up and goes to the bathroom before padding to the refrigerator and taking out a can of coffee. He sits down on the sofa again and drinks the whole thing before calling Naoki back. 

“Kazu,” Naoki says when he picks up the phone. 

“Hey,” Nino says quietly. He knows Ohno sleeps deep but sometimes just the right sound can wake him up. 

“Sorry I called so many times,” Naoki says. “Just... I hadn’t heard from you so I wanted to know if you were okay?” 

“I guess so,” Nino says. “I’m staying in a hotel.” 

“Did you meet someone?” Naoki asks. 

Nino doesn’t answer right away, waits to hear another deep breath coming from the bedroom. 

Naoki speaks before he can respond. “If you did,” Naoki says. “I’m glad.” 

Nino swallows. “When are you moving?” 

“I don’t know yet,” Naoki says. “I can leave soon if you want me to or I can stick around.” 

“Why did you tell me you could see the future?” Nino asks. It sounded so stupid the first time Naoki said it to him. But now he’s here trying to make animals walk right off of pieces of paper. He’s here living in a hotel room with a guy he just met and no clue where he’s going by the end of this week. 

“I figured you wouldn’t believe me anyway,” Naoki says. Nino can feel him smiling against the phone. “So I might as well just say it.” 

“So what did you see?” Nino asks. 

“Exactly what I told you,” Naoki says. 

“That we wouldn’t stay together,” Nino says, repeating words from a long time ago. “That you’d have to leave and that at the same time my life would change.” 

“You’re gonna big a big actor right?” Naoki says. 

“I don’t know about that,” Nino says. 

He moves the can of coffee around on the table. Regretful that he doesn’t have another because he still doesn’t feel quite awake. It’s like he’s dreaming but his dream isn’t kind enough to conjure him up some more caffeine. 

“I wasn’t the one meant for you,” Naoki says. 

“See that’s what I thought you were saying to get into my pants,” Nino laughs. “It sounds like a bad pickup line.” 

“It does doesn’t it,” Naoki says softly. His voice is warm and comforting. But in a different way from Ohno’s.

“Do you think that--” Nino starts, but then hears a rustling sound coming from the next room. 

“Kazu?” Naoki asks. 

“Hold on,” Nino says. 

He moves to the end of the sofa so he can peek beyond Ohno’s doorway a little. He must be waking up and if he does he’ll want to go down to the lobby for breakfast. 

But when Nino looks beyond the doorway Ohno hasn’t moved at all. 

The rustling starts again. This time sounding like it’s coming from somewhere else. From the side of the doorway or beyond. Then it sounds like it’s coming from every direction all at once and he stands up tries to see every angle of the room. 

“I have to go,” he says to Naoki before turning off the phone and tossing it back onto the sofa. Just then he looks up right in time to see a moth dart off of the paper and fly towards the window.  
There were four pictures on the trail to Ohno’s room. Walrus, dove, penguin, moth. Nino looks down to see the smudge on the paper where the moth once was and runs for the window. He can capture this one. Not like the ladybug that got away but this one he can get. 

He takes a plastic cup from near the sink and tries to sneak up on it. But it starts to fly again when his foot makes a sound against the side of the table. 

It flies into the bedroom where Ohno is sleeping soundly and before Nino notices that Ohno has cracked the window the moth adeptly flies through the small space and its far too gone for Nino to catch. 

He stands breathlessly against the wall and Ohno begins to stir. 

Ohno squints against the daylight that filters in through the window. Funny because he squints just the same even when there is no light in the room. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks. 

Nino must look disappointed there, slumped against the wall with his sad, empty plastic cup. 

“I tried to get it,” he says. “It got away.” 

“What got away?” Ohno asks, rubbing his eyes and sitting up in the bed. 

Nino picks up the paper with the dark smudge on it and Ohno takes it in his hands. 

“Moth,” Nino says. And Ohno’s face breaks into what might be the most joyous smile he’s ever seen. Nino feels his chest leap and he presses his lips together almost unable to meet Ohno’s eyes but he also can’t look away. 

“Yuuki-chan’s magic kiss,” Ohno says brightly. “It worked!" 

Nino groans and hits him in the shoulder then kisses him on the lips. 

Then isn’t apart from him almost any day after that.


End file.
